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Critical Elements Completes Pilot Plant Work for Lithium Carbonate Conversion
MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwired - May 29, 2017) - Critical Elements Corporation (the "Corporation" or "Critical Elements") (TSX VENTURE:CRE)(OTCQX:CRECF)(FRANKFU
About this update from Critical Elements Lithium Corporation
[{"type":"text","content":"MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwired - May 29, 2017) - Critical Elements Corporation (the \"Corporation\" or \"Critical Elements\") (TSX VENTURE:CRE)(OTCQX:CRECF)(FRANKFURT:F12) is pleased to announce results from Pilot Plant program recently completed by the Company with Outotec to demonstrated that the conversion of Critical Elements spodumene resources into lithium carbonate battery quality using the thermal leaching process was easily achievable. This well knowns conversion process (calcination, thermal leaching & bicarbonization & crystallization) from Spodumene concentrate to lithium carbonate showed extremely good results with extraction rates of 88.4% with very high purity of lithium carbonate of 99.9%. This extraction rate surpasses the worldwide average of between 70 to 75% in what is accepted as an industry standard. Purity of 99.9% was reached and the impurity profile is outstanding with levels of sodium below 100 ppm, calcium below 200 ppm, iron below 20 ppm and heavy metals below 5 ppm. Li2CO3 analyses -impurity levels in Li2CO3 These results demonstrated that Critical Elements approach to the lithium carbonate processing plant has been validated and do not require any additional cost intensive purification steps. The diagram below illustrates the Critical Elements process flow: \"This supports the low impurity profile of our ore allows us the production of lithium carbonate battery quality at competitive costs without additional purification steps\" said Jean-Sébastien Lavallée, Chairman and CEO of Critical Elements. As supported by these tests, and by choosing this technology (i.e. Thermal Leaching Process) Critical Elements has demonstrated their technological leadership, which will result in a superior product at the lowest possible cost. PILOT PLANT WORK DETAILS Details on piloting work program achieve over 336 hours at Outotec Pilot plant: Pilot operated in 8 hour shifts 24 h/day, 7 days a week Pilot is operated for 14 days = 336 hours During 8 hour shift the following tasks are done Slurry preparation (Sample from PR) Leaching + bicarbonization (Sample after BcR) Leach residue filtration and washing (Sample from BC WW, residue to PSD analysis) • Polishing filtration of the filtrate (Sample from T1) Crystallization (Sample from S3 filtrate) Caustification (Sample from pHR and T2) Li2CO3 washing is done once...